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Cited by 278

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 205 of the 205 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Too clean, or not too clean: the Hygiene Hypothesis and home hygiene

Open access
Bloomfield, S. F., Stanwell‐Smith, R., Crevel, R. W. R., Pickup, J.·2006·Clinical & Experimental Allergy

Abstract

Summary: The ‘hygiene hypothesis’ as originally formulated by Strachan, proposes that a cause of the recent rapid rise in atopic disorders could be a lower incidence of infection in early childhood, transmitted by unhygienic contact with older siblings. Use of the term ‘hygiene hypothesis’ has led to several interpretations, some of which are not supported by a broader survey of the evidence. The increase in allergic disorders does not correlate with the decrease in infection with pathogenic organisms, nor can it be explained by changes in domestic hygiene. A consensus is beginning to develop round the view that more fundamental changes in lifestyle have led to decreased exposure to certain microbial or other species, such as helminths, that are important for the development of immunoregulatory mechanisms. Although this review concludes that the relationship of the hypothesis to hygiene practice is not proven, it lends strong support to initiatives seeking to improve hygiene practice. It would however be helpful if the hypothesis were renamed, e.g. as the ‘microbial exposure’ hypothesis, or ‘microbial deprivation’ hypothesis, as proposed for instance by Bjorksten. Avoiding the term ‘hygiene’ would help focus attention on determining the true impact of microbes on atopic diseases, while minimizing risks of discouraging good hygiene practice.

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Crossref · 10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x

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Metadata

Authors
Bloomfield, S. F., Stanwell‐Smith, R., Crevel, R. W. R., & Pickup, J.
Venue
Clinical & Experimental Allergy
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2006-03-24
Volume
36
Issue
4
Pages
402-425
ISSN
  • 0954-7894 (ISSN-L)
  • 1365-2222
OpenAlex
W1976193559
Cited by
278
References
205
FWCI
11.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
bronze

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Too clean, or not too clean: the Hygiene Hypothesis and home hygiene. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x
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Bloomfield, S. F., Stanwell‐Smith, R., Crevel, R. W. R., & Pickup, J. (2006). Too clean, or not too clean: the Hygiene Hypothesis and home hygiene. Clinical & Experimental Allergy. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2006.02463.x

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.